Great post, and a lot of great responses. I looked around a bit and found this:
http://fishandboat.com/images/admin/lars/fishlice_county2012.pdf
From what I gather, last year >1/3 of the licenses sold included a trout stamp or combo stamp. Thats 578,030 trouters. (only 1/3 of total license sold, which leaves for a lot of other citable boaters/ lake shore bait dunkers)(only a small percentage compared to the population of the Commonwealth 12,763,536)(of which apprx. 7.1million are of legal fishing age)
Other than opening day, think about the times you have seen a WCO on a trout stream, compared to lakes, rivers, etc. We are the minority. Trout fishing is showing to be a loss, in a fiscal perspective.
I would wager that 1/2 to 3/4 of those stamps go to 1st day bait dunkers or the "always get a stamp, just in case". The PFBC knows this. That leaves a ballpark of around 150,000.
Reduce that by the number of guys that REALLY fish, or care about fishing. The guys that hike to a stream, just to see if it holds. The guys that go fishing on a day off, or an afternoon off. The guys that donate money or time to stream repair. The guys who fish before work. The guys who work to fish. The fishermen, the fishers of men.
Now divide that by the Commonwealth of Pa. Now your talking single digits. Does stocking REALLY matter?
I will still fish. I will fish till I can't. I may have to drive further, I may have to walk further, I might catch smaller fish(only ethical), but I will be there. And when there are no fish, after I catch the LAST one, I'll just stand in the river in my waders and throw rocks!
F'in right were elite